Most people skip 1-1 and 1-2 to try to get a big chest on 1-3 and maximize their chances for a shovel. After loop it doesn't really matter anyways, but an early shovel is usually more gamechanging than one difficulty level change.

Man, I was reading that article on my phone and then half way through a giant ad for a motorcycle popped up and I couldn't figure out how to close it - which lead me to think, "hmm, guess I'm done reading the article."

Okay, here's how. When you first approach, make sure he doesn't surprise attack you from behind. Keep him in your sights. Then when you have him in front, make sure you're targeting on him by pressing the LZ. This is the important part - make sure you have your weapon drawn! Then hit Y while targeting to backflip and evade his attacks. If you time it right then time will slow down and it will prompt for you to hit the "Y" to Flurry Rush that bitch. Practice a few times. The following is important: DO NOT HAVE YOUR SHIELD DRAWN, you must have your weapon drawn or else you won't get prompted for the "Y" to Flurry Rush. You should try to hit him occasionally with your weapon and be ready to target again and backflip. Otherwise, it may not prompt you to flurry rush every time. I learned this from experience fighting these guys. When he breathes fire, start running to the left or right (don't fall off the plateau!!).... It will take maybe 8-10 flurry rushes to kill him. A tip - walk around after beating him to gather all the shock arrows you can find on trees and on the ground. Let me know if you have any questions!

This is great advice and largely how I beat him as well. The key is to fight him up close - if you try to out range him with bows and arrows and stuff you're gonna have a bad time. Also, when he casts fire, whip out your glider, go up into the air, then pull out your bow, it'll go into slow-mow such that you can hit him with some more powerful arrows. The key with all of this though... is using those back-flips that gobeavs1 mentioned. All of this with an attack +2 potion and you should be good.